Sports
Bottineau rolls along with two more district wins
Tyler Ohmann
10/08/2013
The strong play continued for the Bottineau Stars this past week as they swept two more district opponents to remain undefeated in District 11 play.
Bottineau traveled to Dunseith on Tuesday and dispatched the Lady Dragons 3-0. They remained on the road on Thursday and similarly defeated the Towner-Granville-Upham (TGU) Titans.
The Stars went in to Dunseith on Tuesday and took care of business as they beat the Dragons 25-11 in set one. The Dragons played much better in the second set and actually led 21-17 at one point, but the Stars rallied back to squeak out a 25-23 win.
Bottineau turned it up a notch in the final set as they thumped the Lady Dragons 25-4 to earn the sweep.
“We did a very nice job of setting up our offense,” stated Stars head coach Steve Dunrud. “All of our hitters had efficient nights.”
Junior Stephanie Brenden had a strong night for the Stars as she led them in aces (six) and kills (12).
Senior setter Bailey Neubauer also played well, earning 29 assists. Senior Rachael Fix had eight digs.
Bottineau continued their strong play on Thursday as they traveled to Towner and cruised to a sweep over the Titans.
The Stars won a lot of long rallies and that led to set wins of 25-13, 25-14 and 25-12.
“The scores are a little deceptive as there were multiple long rallies and the match was a lot more competitive than the scores indicated,” Dunrud stated. “Our girls executed our offense very well and won a few hustle points along the way that really can prolong a scoring streak or give our team a much needed side-out.”
Strong play from the Stars’ seniors dictated the match as Danielle McDonald had a game-high 14 kills and Fix added 16 digs.
Neubauer again played well with 25 assists and three ace serves. Brenden had eight kills and four ace serves, while fellow junior Kennedy Olson had a team-best three blocks.
“The girls were very upbeat, and it was nice to see a lot of smiles throughout the match,” Dunrud said.
The wins on the week bumped the Stars up to 4-0 in District 11 play and 15-5 overall.
Next up for the Stars is another district match as they host Sawyer at 7 p.m. tonight. Bottineau will also travel to play Rugby on Thursday and participate in the Rolla tournament on Saturday.